'The Hunger Games': Elizabeth Banks Lines Up Effie Role

Elizabeth Banks is about to send children to their deaths. On film, of course.

Banks is in talks to play Effie Trinket in the upcoming book-to-film "The Hunger Games," Variety reports; she'd take on the role of adult escort and sometimes protector of the story's heroes, teenage warriors participating in a televised fight to the death tournament on a post-Apocalyptic vision of Earth.

The books, by author Suzanne Collins, are worldwide bestsellers, and the first film in a planned trilogy by director Gary Ross already has put together a strong young cast. Jennifer Lawrence has been cast as heroine Katniss Everdeen, while Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth will play Peeta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne, respectively.

Banks, who plays a recurring role as Alec Baldwin's wife Avery Jessup in "30 Rock," will appear soon as Paul Rudd's sister in the comedy "Our Idiot Brother," is one of the directors and actresses in the comedy shorts film "Movie 43," and will feature in the 2012 films "Man on Ledge" and "Welcome To People."